Following the Revolution the Bolsheviks began their bold new experiment to craft a classless brave new world.  Despite this enthusiastic optimism hard realities remained.  The national infrastructure, already weakened by the Great War, had all but collapsed.  It would take years to develop new weapons, and for a time the Red Army would have to make due with the weapons of the last Tsar's army.

The Federov Avtomat assault rifle was discontinued as too difficult to produce during this time.  Later in the era, a new lightweight machine gun, the DP-28, was introduced to support the aging Maxim guns of the Great War vintage.  Another major objective of this period was to develop a domestic self loading pistol to replace the M-1895 Nagant revolvers.  While research continued many officers armed themselves with the commercial Tula Korovin pistol.  In another interesting development, the Soviets replaced the Imperial M-1881 Shashka with a proper Soviet model in 1927.

Here we have several weapons to display, some dating from far before the period.  Newer weapons developed during this period are in the first column, while older weapons remaining in service are found in the second column.  Each is accompanied by photographs, technical specifications, and a full description of the weapon.  We have tried to focus of the history of each weapon's development, its capabilities and limitations, and where they have been used in combat.  The various types of ammunition used with each weapon are also listed and described.